[PHOTOGRAPHY] Couple of questions

[Taulath]

Hi there. Just getting seriously into digital photography after a few years of point-and-shoot. Have a really nice S7000, which does all I need it to do and I don't feel the need at my level to move up to a DSLR. I'm taking a lot of outdoor shots which are coming out pretty well and I've got a couple I'm pretty proud of.

Anyway, I have a couple of questions with regards to equipment!

1. For taking portrait shots indoors I find the flash to be overpowering and produces blown out highlights and WAY to often I get red-eye. I'm planning on buying a flash for putting on the hotshoe so the flash is further away from the lense. I'm thinking about the 280ABZ from Jessops (http://tracker.tradedoubler.com/click?p=17211&a=60823&g=106115&url=http://www.jessops.com/search/viewproduct.cfm?PRODUCT=JES280ABZ&BRAND=JES&CONTINUE=false&FEATS=&FIRSTPRICE=0&KEYWORD=&LEVEL=&MODELNUMBER=&NEWQUERY=True&NODE=183&ORD=ASC&ORDERBY=&QUANTITY=10&RECENT=0&REFINE=&SEARCH_FOR=&SEARCHNODE=0&SEARCHURL=dointellisearch.cfm&SECONDPRICE=999999&SHOWCASEID=&STARTROW=1&SUBS=,290&WORD_SEARCH=N&#top). Does anyone have any experiance with this flash or can recommend alternatives?

2. Again for portrait use indoors, I guess from the price of hot lights that i'm talking rubbish here, but would it be possible to use standard halogen lights for lighting subjects for a shot? I mean, why spend 100's on studio lighting when something like this (http://www.machinemart.co.uk/product.asp?p=010810540&r=2103&g=114) would do the job? I mean, I assume you'd have to adjust for white balance, but is there any other reason this is a poor solution?

3. What brands do you recommend for filters? I want to get a circular polarizing filter, and probably at a later date a IR, UV and ND filter. I'm reading good things about Hoya, any other good inexpensive filters about?

4. Are there any good websites you can recommend that give advice on good photography technique? I've found loads of good websites for technical advice, but what about tutorials on composition? Capturing the mood? I know a lot of this is inherant talent, but some pointers would go down well ;)

Thanks for reading! :D

P.S. Could someone report this post and ask a Mod to affilliate that Jessops link? - Done by Kryten :)

[George vader]

oops wrong forum.

[stormywhether]

3. yes - you must buy a polarising filter. From what I hear Hoya are pretty good - try Jessops for a quick fix. Also get an ND filter you can leave on the lens at all times.

However - I think you need to buy an adaptor for your camera before it will accept lenses. Go to 7dayshop and in the associated accessories bit for the S7000 you'll find a lens adapter that costs about £20. Then if you feel the need you can buy special tele or macro lenses after for about £90 each too.

[wseed]

2. Again for portrait use indoors, I guess from the price of hot lights that i'm talking rubbish here, but would it be possible to use standard halogen lights for lighting subjects for a shot? I mean, why spend 100's on studio lighting when something like this (http://www.machinemart.co.uk/product.asp?p=010810540&r=2103&g=114) would do the job? I mean, I assume you'd have to adjust for white balance, but is there any other reason this is a poor solution?

I've wondered this as well. The problem with halogen lights historically is that you get a colour cast on film and have to use a filter to compensate. As you rightly state with digital this is no longer an issue as you can set your white balance to the light type or do a custom white balance.

On my photography course last year we used angle pois desk lamps to show how even with cheap lighting you could still achieve certain lighting effects. I guess the drawback of the Clarke work lights is twofold. 1st that they look like worklights. If you aim to do this professionally people will be thinking oh dear who are we trusting to do our portraits. 2nd that like any none flash lighting these will be hot to work under and your subjects might not want pictures of them sweating. Assuming you were thinking of 2 sets of those lamps then 2000w may be too bright in your location too.

[Alan]

If you want to do portraits then you would be best to buy a separate flash head that can connect to the camera by a sync cable. Some flash heads have both the flash shoe mount and the sync cable connectors on them.
This way you can put the flash head on a lighting stand or tripod and have greater control over your lighting. Try bouncing the light from the flash off a big sheet of white card. This will give you more diffused light which will not cast harsh shadows and be more flattering to your model's looks.
If you position your model so that you have your flash head bouncing light on to a sheet of card 6 feet away at 45 degrees to her left side, then position another sheet of card at 45 degrees on her right side - this will give you a nice key light and the other card will reflect some light back on to the other side of her face, knocking out shadows and giving you a nice light and shade effect.

The next step would be to buy a Powerflash studio kit, but that costs a bit of money.
Have fun.
Alan

[raymondlin]

Right, what you can do is get a flash that does either one of this.

Here is a Canon 550EX speedlite mounted on the Canon EOS30

http://img1.uploadimages.net/687264IMG_1540.JPG

First you can point the camera up and bounce the flash off the ceiling, i got it up full vertical on this one, but usually you need it at an angle so it lands rougly on the subject like the second picture.

http://img1.uploadimages.net/532331IMG_1541.JPG

http://img1.uploadimages.net/411242IMG_1543.JPG

or you can use the little built in diffuser that bounce some of the light forward, works quite well actually.

http://img1.uploadimages.net/663679IMG_1542.JPG

or you can use a diffuser like this

http://img1.uploadimages.net/353521IMG_1544.JPG

[Samiad]

Studio lighting can get really complex, I haven't got any experience or any clue when it comes to that. There is a very competant group of people on the DPReview.com forums for that (there is a dedicated lighting forum). Some of the lighting arrangements are spectacular.

For really impressive photos I've been led to believe that two flashes are a must, whether it be one on camera and another off, or two strobes off camera.

I guess you can use halogen or incadescent lights, but if you mix them you will have a hellish time with white balance!

[Sam]

I've just bought a portaflash studio 3 kit from Ebay. I'm waiting for a camera adapter I've ordered and then I can start playing. But its basically 2 portaflash heads with modelling lights and 2 slave flash units, reflectors etc. i can't wait to start playing but its going to be a steep learning curve having never done any studio work before.

[Taulath]

Thanks for the replys guys, especially raymondlin :bow:

Anyone any advice on a decent flash to get? Don't want to spend a fortune but want something that I can buy diffusers for etc.

Another question.. What equipment do I need to take a flash off camera? The s7000 doesn't have a sync socket, so can you get something that plugs into the hot shoe and you plug a cable into that?
What about radio linked flash units? Are they expensive?
Is it worth me buying a slave flash that senses when a flash goes off and flashes itself? And any recommendations?

[raymondlin]

There is one more thing you can do, it's call the off shoe sync cord, I have a offical Canon one (bloody rip off !), it basically let you keep all the function of the flash as it is still on the camera hot shoe but it's free to move around.

http://img1.uploadimages.net/080869IMG_1546.JPG

http://img1.uploadimages.net/577267IMG_1548.JPG

So when it's free, you can just use one hand to move the flash to point at the ceiling, etc.

There is 2 advantages to this

1 - It reduce the chances of red eye. You get red eye because of the flash is too close to the lens, so when the flash goes off, the light goes into the eye and comes straight back. If the flash is further away from the lens, the angle won't let the light bounce directly back into the lens. Hence no Red Eye.

2 - You can use it to bounce the flash off ceiling, some Flash heads are fixed without filting or Swivel , so it's stuck, with this you are free.

I got the 550EX because it's the best on the market, £270 thou, but also it talks between the Canon camera, Using E-TTL, it does a quick pre-flash, to judge the amount of light it needs to flash to get a correct exposure before the real flash goes off. The 2 flash are really fast and so close together, i've never noticed it.

The jessops one seem to be fine for the money, what i am worry is that it doesn't communicate with the camera, so the flash will sent out a full flash everytime. Where it should adjust the level of power of flash it gives using the zoom if it does commuincate. The spec says it is manual too, may be that'll work if auto doesn't. You should take the camera into Jessops and try them together.

btw, the guide number your case 28 from the "280ABZ AUTO BOUNCE ZOOM FLASHGUN" means it should correctly expose a subject at 28 meters. Mine is 550Ex, so it should expose a subject at 55 meters. Now that is a long way away and i haven't tested it out.

[wseed]

What equipment do I need to take a flash off camera? The s7000 doesn't have a sync socket, so can you get something that plugs into the hot shoe and you plug a cable into that?
What about radio linked flash units? Are they expensive?
Is it worth me buying a slave flash that senses when a flash goes off and flashes itself? And any recommendations?


The slave flashes that work when the sence another flash won't let you use any TTL metering like and attached one will. I don't know much about them but they sell some Vivitar ones at the 7dayshop and I think they are quite cheap.

The Radio or IR linked ones will let you use TTL metering with the flash but they are more £££ the 550ex that Raymondlin demonstrates will work as both a master and slave using I think IR and you can get a separate "trigger" to use on you hot shoe The 550 can be had cheaper I picked one up in HK for about £165 I wish I'd bought 2 now.

[Taulath]

The s7000 doesn't support TTL anyway so thats not an issue at all. The flashes I have been looking at are all Manual/Auto in that you can set the strength of flash on the back of the unit through switches/dial/whatever.

Think I will investigate a slightly more budget version of your off shoe sync cord, raymondlin, as it looks very useful!

[raymondlin]

Glad to help, if you have anymore questions, just ask. :thumbs: